Apparently recently there has been a particular user going around and constantly disrupting online JJ2 games. And apparently those being affected have been asking Nimrod to ban this user from the list servers. Nimrod has asked me to explain why it is we don't ban this individual through the list servers. Now don't get me wrong, we dislike people crashing servers, renaming, and generally making a mess of things just as much as you, but the reason we haven't attempted to ban this user (or similar users) should be clear.

First of all, you may be asking why we do not ban this user and get rid of the problem when we have the ability to do so. The answer to that is simply that we do not have the ability to ban a user from every online JJ2 game. Sure we could ban them from maybe one or two of the list servers, but right now we are unable to ban an individual from every running list server. Even if we could, there are still numerous GIP scripts and other users scattered around online that the banned individual would never be completely cut off from being able to find online JJ2 games. About the only way we could completely prevent one user from finding the list of online JJ2 games would be to completely break down the network so that nobody could find a list of online JJ2 games. That wouldn't be very practical.

In general, it is not the place of the list servers to interfere with individual JJ2 games. The list servers have no more control over JJ2 games than JJ2 games have over the list servers. The purpose of the list servers is simple: to provide a public list of current online JJ2 games so that other JJ2 clients may find and join those games. The list servers have nothing to do with what goes on in those JJ2 games, other than knowing how many players they contain. The hosts and clients of those JJ2 games are responsible for what happens inside of them. If a user is being disruptive in a JJ2 game, the host should consider banning that user from their server. Likewise, if a user is being disruptive to the list servers, we will consider banning that user from the list servers. But, in no way are the list servers responsible for banning users who are being disruptive in JJ2 games.

Now as I said, we dislike disruptive users in our JJ2 games just as much as you, so let me give you some advice on how to deal with users like this. Simply, the way to deal with a user like this is to ban them from your JJ2 game, assuming you are the host of course. To ban a user in-game, simply type (t): ban [usernum], where [usernum] is the number of the user you want to ban. To see what number relates to a particular user in your server, bring up the server list with the key F9. For someone like this, it might be difficult to ban them in-game however. You can still manually place a ban on a person's IP by using the banlist for JJ2. To do this, locate the file banlist.lst in your Jazz2 game directory, and open it with notepad. Simply put the IP of the user you wish to ban on a new line at the bottom of that file, then save it and restart JJ2. If you do not know the IP of the person you need to ban, ask your peers to see if they know, or you can try using Link's Apprehend program which will show IPs even if they cause your server to crash. If you have any other questions, feel free to post a comment here.

Based upon many things, I thought it might be time to go ahead and update the current patch placed around sites which is used to allow JJ2 clients to work with the Network.

At present, there are quite a few different "patches" used. There is the one I created ages ago which is on the J2o Download Section. There is also the patch I created to remove Contrabandent, at: nimmy-online.com/listservers and one final patch created by Pyro and Skaterboy in the J2o User Download Section. There is also Albertos Intelligent List Server Patch which is still used by some and still works.

There is a lot of confusion going on as to what patch is best suited, as eachone has its own good and bad points.

The aim I had in the updated patch is:

Ensure this patch will stop any previous confusionMake sure this patch will last, users are getting sick of constant patching.Allow this patch to help with the phase out of Contrabandent (which i talked about earlier)

From this, made some changes to the old patch. There are two list servers used in the new patch. Which are:uk.jazzjackrabbit.net > Forwards to jazz.nimrod-online.comus.jazzjackrabbit.net > Forwards to jazz.madskills.org

You may ask, why use Jazzjackrabbit.net? First of all, it gives some order to the naming process. Secondly it means the list servers used by clients can be changed our end, without people needing to repatch. Say in a years time for whatever reason I shut down my server, I could point uk.jazzjackrabbit.net at someone elses lists. Clients wouldnt need to repatch. Alberto made a patch like this is the past, which he called "Intelligent List Server Patch". I believe it was his idea, and therefore asked for his permission to do this way, and also credited him for it in the Readme.

A second question you may ask is why Contrabandent isnt on there. In a previous post I have stated my interest to remove it from the network in the future and bring the list under community control. This patch doesnt actually do that, as we wont be "delinking" contrabandent, but it will over time bring users over to community lists, meaning if it was to be delinked in the future, it could be down without any problems. People wont automatically apply the new patch the moment its out, a lot of users will only apply it if the old patches failed (which they most likely wont, unless one of the three current lists changes addresses). I believe its time we slowly removed jazz.contrabandent.com from peoples registrys. If you wish to debate this issue, please refer to the entry previously made on the subject.

I have placed a copy of the patch onto the internet for reviewing and testing, it can be found at:

I would politely ask you if you have any time free to check out the patch, read the readme and apply the patch to test its all working. Please remember this is just a draft. I am seeking your approval before going ahead with submitting it to jj2 sites.

As many of you may know, I'm leaving to go to Spain for a week, started on the 4th of July till the 11th.

During this time, The Digiex Servers will be unmaintained. Although I have full faith in Windows Server System which powers the servers, I dont have faith in all the other things that help keep the servers going: Internet Connection, Router, Power, Cabling etc. If one of them was to fail, I wouldnt be able to do much from all the way in Spain.

It's for this reason, the address jazz.nimrod-online.com will be pointing to jazz.madskills.org for the week in question. This means if an error happened on the Digiex Servers, people could still play Jazz 2 Online without any patching.

If for some reason you need to access the Digiex List Server, you can do so at the address jazz.digiex.net. Although no assistance will be available during this time. The Digiex Server will be linked to the madskills.org server so games will appear on both lists.

Thanks :)See you all in a week. Oh, and if you need to contact me, my email is: snookie*SPAM*boy@g*SPAM*mail.com (yes, remove both *SPAM* ) I will be checking my mail every couple of days when abroad.

This big question we have wondered for a while, but I think nows a time to push it forward.

Why delist from Contrabandent? Heres my reasoning:

1. Its using the Epic Version of the list server which is not compatbile with new features being set up in the new list server.2. Contains many bugs as its using the epic list server program, for example ServerNet.3. Its linked to jazz.nimrod-online.com about 20% of its life, the other 80% is due to ServerNet Failing

We have the ability to sustain JJ2 by ourselfs now, why rely on a unmaintained list?We have three community run list servers:

jazz.nimrod-online.comspaz.nimrod-online.com (Currently used for testing, but will become a dedicated list eventually)jazz.madskills.org

JJ2 barely has more than 10 players or so. The question even arises as to why the need for backup? For the last year or so 90% of Jazz'ers have soley used jazz.nimrod-online.com and havent experienced problems. the only problems ever had were due to ServerNet and having more than one list.

I suggest we have just two lists, a main one and a secondary backup one. Both linked using ServerNet, and both using the latest build by Nebula.

This is public, so anyone can discuss. Sorry about my spelling, Im tired.

I've been testing Nebulas List Server some more and also deploying another test server at spaz.nimrod-online.com.

One of the things I noticed was ServerNet at times went a bit dodgy and required some restarts of the program and such. It was kinda annoying so my idea for the next list server update is to make ServerNET a lot stronger. You know like make it fight to keep ServerNet alive, for example:

If a like a connection is dropped for over 10 minutes it should recheck the DNS (incase it changed) and keep doing so until the connection is regained.If ServerNET connection fails, keep retrying constantly (I assume it does that already?)

I know this seems like a lot of bandwidth wasted, but having list servers not connected can ruin the idea of multiple list servers so I was hoping we could just fine tune it, so it will keep trying no matter what.

Thats one of the few bugs I could find in the current build, its look very promising.
Mar. 18th, 2005 @ 08:05 pm

Bypassing passwords on private servers is against List Server Protocol.Anyone found to being doing so may find there ability to play JJ2 onlinelimited or disabled. They could also find themselves blocked from majorcommunity events like Anniversary Bash, Tournaments etc.

This seems contrary to Monolith's draft rules proposal. As far as I can see, bypassing passwords on private servers has absolutely nothing to do with the list server itself. The consequences are not detailed, but I assume "ability to play JJ2 online limited or disabled" means a ban from the list server. While I have no problem with programming changes to hide private servers on port 10057, I think banning from public list servers for what happens in a private communication between two individual computers is beyond its jurisdiction. Analogous would be removing a site from a search engine database because it hacked another site in the database.